On Tuesday, Michigan hosted the National Work Zone Awareness Week event in the midst of a Rebuilding Michigan project on M-59 in Macomb County. On this week's Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a conversation with Stephanie Boileau, county highway engineer for the Chippewa County Road Commission and president of the Michigan Chapter of the American Traffic Safety Services Association (ATSSA).

Boileau was among the speakers at Tuesday's event, joining Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, MDOT Director Paul Ajegba, Michigan State Police Col. Joe Gasper, Leslie Fonzi-Lynch (the mother of a fallen worker), and other advocates for road worker safety.

Boileau talks about her personal connection to the issue in previous jobs, having lost colleagues in work zone crashes. She also emphasizes the need to engage lawmakers in discussions about work zone policies and laws.

Fonzi-Lynch spoke poignantly about her son, Brandyn Spychalski, a road worker injured in a crash in 2017. He died in 2020 from the injuries he suffered.

Other references:

This year's work zone safety public service announcement, in memory of the five workers killed in Michigan work zones in 2020.

Andy's Law, named for Andrew Lefko, who was paralyzed after being struck by a vehicle while working on I-275 in 1999. He was 19 years old, and it was his first day on the job. Andrew died in 2018.

Video from the live stream of Tuesday's event.

Michigan hosts national work zone safety event - one advocate's motivation